1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to keyboard operated electronic musical instruments and in particular is concerned with a provision for automatically assigning different tones to each of a number of notes played simultaneously on a single keyboard.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The current trend in the design of electronic keyboard operated musical instruments is to use these instruments to imitate a small ensemble of individual musicians such as a small orchestra or combo. Electronic organs have been used in this fashion because their multiple keyboards lend themselves to a simultaneous blend of different musical tone colors. Each keyboard can be programmed by means of stop switches to produce its own distinctive sound. With the arrangement of multiple keyboards and stop switches, the musician can create a wide variety of solo and accompaniment effects. It is indicative of the desired musical design that the common names used to designate the keyboards suggests their use as a small orchestra. The upper keyboard is called the solo manual (keyboard), the lower keyboard is called the accompaniment manual (keyboard) and the third keyboard operated by the feet is called the pedal keyboard.
A limitation in the use of multiple keyboards to imitate a small orchestra is that usually a single tone color is mandated for all the notes played on a single keyboard as determined by the actuated stop switches. This is contrary to the musically desirable mode of separately assigning tone colors to the solo tone and each harmony tone to obtain a musical effect corresponding to orchestral music.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,441 entitled "Electrical Musical Instrument" a system is described which is intended to imitate a small orchestra. When a single note, for example, is played on a keyboard a system of logic causes a selection from a harmonic pattern of accompaniment notes to be played. A feature is that the automatically selected accompaniment notes are treated individually to produce their own tonal color as distinct from that assigned to the actuated note.
It is an object of this invention to provide means for automatically assigning different preselected tone colors to each of a number of notes played on a single keyboard.
It is a further object of this invention to assign the tone colors in a manner that maintains the solo line tone color as the number of actuated keys on a keyboard changes with time.